Summer Harvests

Its been a busy summer and I've had lots of good eating from the garden! 

I'm involved in two community growing projects and have my own garden to look after so most of my spare time over the Summer has been gardening!

The community growing projects are great in that they involve other people who have an interest in gardening, and we've been able to share our crops. The veg in the first photo is from the community growing scheme. In our first year we've had lots of salad crops, spinach, chard, runner beans, courgette, cucumber, broad beans, parsley and potatoes. 

Two varieties of potato were harvested from my own garden - Pentland Javelin and Red Duke of York. I dry them and store them in a cloth bag in a dark, dry place. They usually keep through to December.

More veg from one of the community growing projects. Lots of salad crops this year. I also grew garlic for the first time and had reasonable success.

My tomatoes were grown from seed and kept in a plastic greenhouse facing South-East. They grew well, however, the fruits have been slow to ripen.

This large Summer Squash was given to me by a fellow grower, and has been turned into soup and put into the freezer for eating when the weather is colder!

The weather has been good and I'm hoping for a late frost!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Harvesting Veg (radish, spring onion, mustard greens)

I've started harvesting! 

There's not a whole lot of harvesting to be done at the minute (to be honest), but it's always a great feeling to be able to sow, grow, and eat something... and that something (currently) has been radishes, spring onion and giant mustard greens. 

The radish were sown in March and harvested in April. Radishes only take about a month or so to grow into something edible. I had a bit of a glut of radishes but I discovered they are delicious in stir fry, and are also good cut in half and added to vegetable soup. Of course, the most common way of eating radishes is sliced and put into salad.

Radish are generally easy to grow. However, I recall, when I first started gardening, having quite  a few unsuccessful attempts at growing them!  

The Spring Onion and Mustard Greens 'Giant Red' were sown last year around August time. They over wintered and are now starting to put on growth and are ready to eat. The giant mustard greens, like their name, taste just like mustard and are great on burgers, sandwiches or in salad to spice up the flavour.

You may notice the net covering the  veg - this is because stray cats seem to think my nicely turned soil is a 'loo' for them, so I have to net any vegetables that I grow. Suppose this is an issue many of us face (naughty cats)!

Happy Gardening!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Community Gardening

April is the start of the gardening season for me and I've been back up at Antrim Castle Gardens volunteering weekly in the gardens. The grounds are owned by the local Council and the space is wonderful to work in with very beautiful surroundings.

Last year we developed a new Cottage Garden that has been developed for the most part from recycled materials (logs, old castle gate, etc) and from plants that have been donated. This is really its first year and we're looking forward to seeing how it looks this Summer. Its a work in progress, particularly as our budget is very limited.

Poppies grown from seed collected from plants in the garden.

We started sowing seed in March and things are really growing well - won't be long until we will be planting out.

We also have a Heritage Garden that we've been developing over the last couple of years.

We've a core group of 15 volunteers and others who dip in and out. It has been really enjoyable gardening with other enthusiasts, and I'd highly recommended community gardening projects! 

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Getting Back into the Garden

I generally wait until April to start sowing seed and this year will be the same. My little plastic green house is great and comes in handy. This little 'tent' system is cheap; it cost about £10 and keeps plants warm and protected. I'll then harden them off and get them into the ground by late May / early June.

Other seed of course will be sown direct into the prepared beds in May / June. 

This year I'm upping my sowing of potatoes, onions and salad plants. Other plants I always sow:

- courgette

- kale 

-chard

mainly because they're easy to grow and generally give me little trouble.

I'm focusing quite  a bit on salad plants this year and will grow a variety of lettuces for colour, shape/texture and taste. Another busy year for sure!

Potatoes will go into the ground in early April and Onion sets will be started in the greenhouse.

It's great to see the bees buzzing around the garden; here pictured feeding on Heather.

A little reminder to myself this time of year!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Goodbye Giant Sunflowers

My 'Giant Single' Sunflowers, grown from seed, have been a cheerful addition to the garden over Summer, but they're sadly coming to an end...

The seed were sown around April, and they slowly and steadily grew over the first few months; then like the magic 'jack and the beanstalk', they sprung up to about 7 feet tall and starting flower in August. The most cheerful plant, I can think of, in the garden! 

October flowers are starting to fade, and will soon die off.

I tidy up the plant by cutting off the large seed heads as they finish flowering and place them where birds can feed on them.

I also collect seed (toward bottom left in photo) for growing plants next year.

 I so love sunflowers!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Harvesting Tasty Salads

I've had great salad crops all summer long. Grown from seed, the lettuces have been relatively pest free - however strange it seems! The slugs, snails, caterpillars and other pests have affected other plants (kale, beans, etc) but they've left most of the lettuces alone, which has been great.

Pictured is an organic mixed salad made up of: lettuce leaves (salad bowl red and green); onion; shredded carrot (the carrot is underneath so its difficult to see); cucumber and cherry tomatoes from the community garden; and coriander sprinkled on top for added flavour. I'll serve with olive oil or red wine vinegar.

Grown from seed, I harvested 'Chantenay Red Cored 2' carrots for the weekend. More of these to pull but I tend to leave them in the ground until needed.

I ate my first home-grown apple of the season this week from a self pollinating apple tree that grows in a large pot. I have 13 apples this year - equal to my previous record of 13 apples.

Today I'm joining Harvest Monday, hosted by Daphne's Dandelions blog. 

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Potato Pentland Javelin Harvest

This week I harvested my potatoes, Pentland Javelin, which were planted as seed potatoes on 21 March 2015. 

In a 40 by 32 inch planting space, I had put in 10 small seed potatoes. The end result was a harvest of 9.1kg or approx 20 pounds. 

So far, I've baked them and made chunky oven chips and they taste great. They have a good texture after cooked.

They grew relatively pest free and have a very clean, light coloured skin. I'd definitely recommend them for the Irish weather.

Where I made space, taking out the potatoes, I've planted salad crops (mustard greens, salad bowl, mizuna, and radish) so I can continue my summer salad eating regime.

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Magical Gardening Month of May

With the warmer weather, lots of growth can be seen daily throughout the garden, which is very exciting.

Pictured, veggies grown from seed sown last year are growing rightly - kale, chard, spinach, parsley and Winter lettuce 'Arctic King. These have all over wintered and thrive in Spring/early Summer. I imagine many of these plants will begin to bolt soon so I've been harvesting and trying to use as much as I can.

In the clay pot, I have Wallflowers 'Choice Mixed' grown from seed in Aug/Sept last year. I've been a bit disappointed with the number of flowers (not much of a show) but maybe there's more to come. This is the first time I've grown Wallflowers so I don't know much about these plants. On the plus side, they provide some early colour. 

Chard and Kale are staples in my garden. They contain lots of vitamins and minerals and are easy to grow. I've now sown chard and kale seed for the coming year and will plant into the garden at the end of May. These tasty greens compliment soup, casseroles, sauce based dishes, as well as stir fries.

Rhubarb with some bendy looking stalks. Rhubarb crumble is on the menu today.

Hostas are emerging and looking really pretty. Non-edible to humans? They're a tasty treat for snails and slugs. I try to keep an eye these plants before they become shabby, half eaten plants.

Recently I purchased some value pack bulbs and I manged to get the Acidanthera Peacock Orchids for 10 pence / 15 cents per pack marked down on clearance. I'm wondering if they have an invasive nature and if they tend to multiply like crazy as do some bulbs like crocosmia? I definitely don't want something that multiplies and is difficult to remove. 
Has anyone ever grown Peacock Orchids, and any tips?

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Seed sowing

We've had lots of sun this week and my little seedlings have suffered a bit from the heat and the drop in temperature at night. I'm eagerly awaiting their growth, and trying to ensure they don't dry out or suffer from sun scorch.

I've a good variety of seed sown. I'm aiming to grow veg that looks interesting as well as tastes good. Some varieties I've gone for include:

red/green lettuce Lollo Rossa
purple/green kale Red Russian
red stemmed Rhubarb Chard Vulcan
stripy Courgettte Coucourzelle

Above: Kale and courgette are growing quickly. The next step is to pot them on , with the aim of planting out into the veg area at the end of May (to ensure they don't get hit by frost).

Onion sets Stuttgarter have grown quite quickly. They are now relocated and have been planted outside. Of course I had too many that I could use, so I'll be giving a tray to one of the garden club members - 0ne of the benefits of being involved in a gardening group.

If anyone would like to take a look, my gardening group has set up a FaceBook - click here to visit. 

Happy Gardening!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

My itsy bitsy harvest

We've had mixed weather over the past week - snow, hail stones, sun, rain and gales. I'm ready to sow seed but, it's soooo windy that I have put it off until things settle a bit more.

Over the weekend, and in between rain showers, I picked some chard, parsley and three types of kale to go into a pot of chili. Once cooked, I thought to myself, 'it's amazing how much the veg shrinks when cooked'. However it's nice to have a little home grown veg. I  also managed to make a salad from over wintered 'Corn Salad Cavallo' (not pictured) which went great with fish pie!

With my ity-bity harvest, I'm joining Daphne's Dandelions for Harvest Monday.

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

My veggies are looking a bit sad

I have one remaining veg area with plants in it. Over the weekend I did a bit of tidying and some clearing. I managed to make a little salad from two young lettuces 'arctic king', tatsoi leaves and a mizuna that was hiding under the parsley.

I pulled up about 6 beetroot that are likely to be inedible, however, I'm tempted to give it a go and see. 

Left: these were planted quite late (mid August) and I thought they were spinach but looking at the photo they look like chard. Something is nibbling on them, but I predict they'll keep producing green leaves well into Spring.

Parsley (plain leaf) is taking over this area and needs harvested - suppose there's only so much parsley I can eat!

Above: Kale 'nero di toscana' with tatsoi (a baby leaf salad),  and lettuce 'arctic king' growing slowing in the background.

The seed pack from what are described as 'cool weather' croppers. I always keep my seed packs and I try to write the date seeds are sown on the back of the pack as an attempt to record what I've sown.

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

New Seeds

I've started planning for 2015 and recently I purchased a few seeds from an organic gardening company based in Surrey.

I'm always excited to get new seeds (even though I have hundreds of seed packs)! However I now share seeds with my gardening group so it's not as bad if I have lots of them!

I bought 6 packs of seeds, one of which is still to come. Here's what I chose:

Asparagus Lettuce (organic) - apparently when it bolts the stems are edible and have a flavour like asparagus. This appeals to me as bolting plants seems common place in my garden.

Orache Green (organic) - this one can be eaten when it bolts too. It's related to spinach, eaten like lettuce, but the flavour doesn't go bitter when it bolts.

I also ordered Giant Red Mustard Greens (organic) as I thought it would be attractive and I love the taste of mustard; and Red Curled Kale as I was out of seed and enjoy the beauty of this plant amongst others in the garden.

In terms of flowers, the French Marigold Mr Majestic are deep red and yellow and I'm assuming easy to grow lik most marigolds, with a long flowering period (June to October). 

Of course, there is always a random purchase, and this time my random choice was Cobaea Scandens, a vigorous climber with large purple, bell shaped flowers and dark green foliage. What I will do with this, I haven't quite figured out! But its all part of the fun!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Happy Harvesting in October

October harvests are still going strong... lots to harvest as we go into cooler weather.

This week's harvest included curly kale (fab in soups), lettuce little gem, dwarf bean purple queen, perpetual spinach, flat leaf parsley, two types beetroot and turnip. 

The star of the week is Dwarf Bean 'Purple Queen' - yummy and lots of beans are developing; I'm hoping the colder weather at night won't negatively affect them.

Tomatoes grown from seed, and plants kept outdoors, are ripening but they're also splitting. I think these are Gardener's Delight. Suppose this is due to the variations in weather and water. The inside of many of the tomatoes are spongy - not sure why - so I'm using them for cooking rather than salads. I'm not keen on spongy tasting tomatoes!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Veg Update

September has been warm and the vegetables are still going strong. I'm glad I kept sowing seed, even late in the season, as I've ended up with a good few items for late harvesting.

Left: Lettuces, courgette, parsley etc are growing happily. The pak choi keeps  bolting; I've tried to grow it on a number of occasions and haven't had success so this might be going on my black list of 'don't bother to grow'.

Other veg growing include kale, swede, beetroot, chard, leek and salad crops.

One of the problems this month with courgette has been mildew on the leaves. I've ended cutting most of the leaves off. 

Above: Lots of Turnip Milan Purple Top.

Above: This photo was taken about 10 days ago; the cherry sized tomatoes are now turning red. I'm not a huge fan of tomatoes so most go into cooking / sauces.

Above: This time of year is great for taking woodland walks and picking blackberries - free and tasty!

Above: Dwarf Beans Purple Queen were sown in late June and are producing well. Better late than never!

Lots to keep me busy! Hope you have a great week in the garden!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Harvesting Veg

A basket full of a week's harvest.

I'm now harvesting veg from two different places - my own garden and the community garden I volunteer at. Between the two, I don't really  need to buy much veg at the grocery store which is fantastic. 

I enjoy cooking and I'm not a fussy eater so I always take the veg no one else wants (cucumber, kale, leaf beet etc). I generally make up my own recipes and just use whatever I have in the fridge (and garden). I just love all this veg - so very yummy!

Once the veg is washed, I start planning my meals for the week. This week's harvest includes: 2 types of lettuce, tomatoes, beetroot, turnip, swede, leaf beet, kale, carrots, celery, cucumber, and peppers.

This week I'm joining Harvest Monday for the first time at Daphne's Dandelions blog. Not sure if I qualify because some of the veg comes from the community garden, but thought I'd give it a go, and Daphne can keep me right. Happy Harvesting!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Veg Harvest

My little veg harvest over the weekend will keep me going this  week. (The only veg I bought in my grocery shop was a cabbage marked down to 16 pence / 25 US cents - a bargain I couldn't pass up.)

My harvest includes lettuce for salads and cooking apples to make dessert. I used the turnip, broccoli, courgette, kale, leaf beet, and celery in a big pot of chili. And I made celery, potato and courgette soup. All very yummy if I say so myself.

I didn't grow all this veg. Some of it came from the community growing project at Antrim Castle Gardens where we volunteer as a group. We have had a good supply of veg and herbs over the summer that we share with members and guests to the gardens. Guests do love taking a wee treat home with them (spuds, cucumber, tomatoes and such).

Happy harvesting everyone!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.

Veggie Challenge

This year growing vegetables seems to be more challenging. We've had warm weather  which seemed a good thing (for Ireland high 60sF or low 70sF is warm), however as I grow from seed and grow organically I've had lots of problems with pests eating emerging seedling. After re-sowing seed 3 times or more, I finally have late crops that look good. In this bed: Turnip Milan Purple Top, Dwarf Bean Purple Queen, Lettuce Little Gem and Pak Choi. (Unfortunately the Pak Choi bolts very quickly and I've not had much success with it.)

Above: Courgette Tondo di Piacenza - a few days away from the garden and suddenly these round courgette can go from golf ball size to big melon size!
Some courgette are now starting to get blossom rot / mildew (small once pictured at bottom) so they get picked off and discarded.

Beetroot Boltardy and Beetroot Chioggia - they have been a great addition to summer salads (grated and with red wine vinegar). The round shapes look good, however, the pear shaped ones definitely wound't win a prize!  
Even with the challenges of growing veg, it's fun and worth it!

Copyright: All words and photos are property of Kelli's Northern Ireland Garden.